


A Silmaril Upon Her Breast

by emeralddarkness



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Elwing is a bird, Gen, Immediately post third Kinslaying, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 12:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1510601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeralddarkness/pseuds/emeralddarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elwing cannot leave her children so easily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Silmaril Upon Her Breast

Elrond and Elros were curled around each other. It was how they’d been found after the slaughter, wrapped around each other and shivering, and it was how they had stayed ever since. Somewhere far away, a harp was being played. The notes were slow and thoughtful, new chords and strains added after the first and then discarded as the first melody was returned to again.

Elros was of the opinion (he had said in hushed whispers, afraid of being heard) that they should climb out of the window and run. Elrond had asked the practical question of where they would sleep and what they would eat and how they would find anyone again. (Neither said the obvious, that most who they both knew were now dead). Elros had not had a satisfactory answer. But, he had said fiercely, they would find a way. Elrond did not say that he did not think they would be allowed to, not after having been brought here, and Elros knew that he did not say it.

The killers had treated them kindly enough, thus far, after the very beginning, after the blood and battle, after Mother had thrown herself towards the sea with the star shining upon her breast, a flash of white like the foam on a wave which had lifted away again like sea spray. Neither trusted their kindness, for what was kindness against the blood that stained their swords? Elrond and Elros had wondered in whispers if they bled every time they were drawn. _Kinslayer_ , Elros had spat when the first, with one hand and hair as bright as the fire that had raged through the havens, had brought them bread. His eyes had darkened and expression tightened but he had not argued, nor taken back the food.

“Tell me if you need anything else, or if you want more.”

Elrond tore his portion to shreds before considering that he should have kept it for the escape. In the night both put it to use anyway, feeding the mice and talking to them quietly as they ate. It helped, somehow, or maybe made things worse – it was the first real chance of either of the brothers to think and talk in detail of what had happened. The mice were kind enough and listened as politely as mice could over their crumbs but were only _mice_ , and somehow that almost made everything worse, because all there was left now was _mice_. Elros cried fiercely, and Elrond miserably, hunched over as though it was his chest that had been carved open. It was then that they saw the light.

It was not a swan, nor an eagle, nor a gull. Its wings were wide and white, and its beak and feet were as dark as shadow. Its breast was what shone, like a star, and the light of it felt as though it would burn away all of the impurities in the world. From wherever the music had been coming there was a discordant sound and the music stopped, but that hardly seemed important as the bird reached its graceful neck through the window and gently combed their hair back from their faces with its beak. Then there was a cry from somewhere, and the moment later a twang like the string of a bow, which was when the bird made a noise for the first time. The wail it let out was nothing like the song of a bird, full of despair, and it craned its neck all around and then turned from the window and dived away. Elrond and Elros stared at each other, then joined hands and raced to the door.

It was unlocked, which neither had expected. Elrond had been trying to find something to pick or break the lock when Elros had pulled with a strength born of desperation and nearly been knocked over by how quickly it had swung back. Maedhros, the fiery-haired murderer, had been at the end of the hallway as they came out, and after a frozen moment Elrond and Elros both had turned and fled before him. They did not know the building and so ran blindly, choosing hallways at random and doors when they were open until finally they ran into a courtyard, open to the sky with walls covered in jasmine and with no doors but the one they had just come through. Maglor, the other murderer, was standing on its wall, bow in his hand, harp abandoned below him, looking at the sky, but the bird was gone again, now. He turned down with his brother’s name on his lips but had stopped when instead he saw the twins, breathless and desperate, pale under the moon. He was surprised at them, it seemed, for his eyes widened slightly as he turned to take a step down towards them.

Elros was the one who acted first, as usual, diving for a piece of stone as the best weapon available and hurling it. His aim was good and the stone was sharp, but still all he managed was to make a shallow cut on Maglor’s forehead, barely more than a scratch. Maedhros came out of the doorway they had run from behind them, and looked first to the sky, then to his brother, then to the children who were stumbling away again from them both.

Elros threw another rock and Maglor grimaced, fending this piece away with his hand and being cut again there. He stepped close enough to grab Elros’s hand and make him drop the third pebble. “It is unwise,” he said in a voice that was low and even, “unwise and ill-mannered to attack those who show you kindness.”

“What of those who you already have killed-” Elros's voice was fierce as tears ran down his face, and he struggled to pull away from the older elf's grasp. It was then that light burst into being again, and with a great cry the bird was there again. It beat Maglor about the head and shoulders with its wings, who yelled and dropped Elros's hand. The two stumbled apart from each other with mixed noises of surprise and pain and impotent anger, as Maedhros yelled and drew his knife. Elrond yelled as well and ran for the wall. Behind him the great white bird left its attack and flew after him, so close that its feathers almost brushed his fingertips, and the wind from its wings tangled his hair. One of the kinslayers swore.

“Get them out of here!” Maglor spat, seizing his bow again and an arrow from his discarded quiver. His long arrows were fletched with swan feathers, and the fletching shone almost as bright a white as those of his target.

“No!” Elros had shrieked, and “Mother!” Elrond had cried in the same breath, turning again from the wall and darting back. Maedhros had reached out and scooped up first Elros, the known troublemaker and the closer of the two. He wasn’t fast enough to catch Elrond, who darted close enough to grab the bottom of the bow as Maglor shot, jarring his aim enough to make the shot miss, if not by nearly enough. The bird wailed as though in pain, and the beats of its wings suddenly became uneven. Dark drops of blood stained the edge of its wing.

“Elrond!” Maedhros’s voice was as sharp as it had been yet - even when he had been killing he had done so coldly. He reached down to grab the second child, but Elrond squirmed free and ran again until he reached the quiver. This he grabbed and dumped out, breaking as many of the fine long arrows as he could with a frantic haste. He managed to get most of them, he thought, he _hoped_ , before Maglor tore him back away again and lifted him away from the weapons. As he did so he pulled the arrows and pieces of arrows away from Elrond's hands and threw them to the dirt of the garden. Maglor looked at Elrond, then again at the sky, expression hard as iron. Elrond tried to kick him, face wet with tears. His hands were gentle, and Elrond hated him for it.

"Go, go, _please_!" The words were a screech, barely even language any more. Above them the bird wailed again and circled twice. As Maglor passed Elrond to his brother and reached again for his bow it cried one last time and spread its wings wide, lifting away.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always appreciated!


End file.
